5 Bargain-Bin NBA Free Agents Who Would Help Every Team
Calling all of the NBA's coupon-clippers and promo-code miners. We have another crop of bargain-bin free agents who could help your team.
Yes, your team.
These five free agents have the potential to be so cheap that it doesn't matter whether they are signed as a luxury, necessity or something in between. Operating under the assumption they will accept the $6.1 million mini mid-level exception or less, all of them stand to provide plenty of bang for their buck.
In the interest of keeping things fresh, we will not repeat any of the 10 names dropped in our first two runs through the clearance rack. That's OK, though. Even with that many names off the board, it's not especially hard to find another batch of five free agents every single team should be monitoring.
Bargain-Bin Free Agents Already Covered
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As a brief refresher, let's have a look at the players who already made the cut in each of our previous two editions.
- Marcus Smart (player option)
- Landry Shamet
- De'Anthony Melton (player option)
- Dean Wade
- Sandro Mamukelashvili
- Keon Ellis
- Javonte Green
- Jordan Goodwin
- Tim Hardaway Jr.
- Gary Trent Jr. (player option)
And now, it's time to find another five.
Mohamed Diawara
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Status: Restricted
2025-26 Salary: $1.3 million
2025-26 Stats: 3.6 points, 1.4 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.2 steals, 0.1 blocks
Mohamed Diawara got off to a scorching-hot start this year by downing 41.4 percent of his threes before the All-Star break. The accuracy was disarming relative to his pre-draft scouting report.
Ditto for the minutes he was playing. The New York Knicks weren't rolling him out with absurd volume. But he spent a chunk of his rookie year receiving more than just garbage-time reps.
Cracking the regular-season rotation of a title contender (and eventual champion) as a newbie selected 51st overall says a lot about the way Diawara comports himself. His defensive versatility can't be overstated. Nobody will soon forget the night he put Jaylen Brown in hell, but he routinely held his own against burlier combo bigs and twitchy guards.
The 21-year-old's threebies still need to become more than an at-times blistering party trick. Even if the jumper never evolves into a steady weapon, though, he is a try-hard floor-runner and has genuine fluidity on the ball that could render him more of a driving threat.
New York can match mini-mid-level offers for Diawara (and then some). Yet, its presumed entry into the second apron always meant he'd be a flight risk. With team governor James Dolan now saying that crossing the second-apron line would be "suicidal," Diawara could be good as gone.
Simone Fontecchio
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Status: Unrestricted
2025-26 Salary: $8.3 million
2025-26 Stats: 8.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.5 steals
Simone Fontecchio hasn't come close to sniffing the prominent role he enjoyed with the Utah Jazz while spending time with the Detroit Pistons and Miami Heat. That's good news for cash-strapped teams in need of an offensive infusion with size.
After a down shooting year in 2024-25, Fontecchio nailed 37.5 percent of his triples with the Heat on over 10 attempts per 36 minutes. Just three other players in the league accomplished the same while burying as many total threes: Stephen Curry, Isaiah Joe and Klay Thompson.
Fontecchio admittedly doesn't promise additional levels to his scoring, but he makes up for it with a fluid long-range portfolio. You can have him fire away off screens, dump-offs, cuts, etc. He ranked in the 68th percentile last season of movement points scored per 75 possessions, according to BBall Index. And that was the worst mark of his career.
Someone standing 6'7" who can shoot like Fontecchio could invite more attention on the open market. But a lack of on-ball and defensive utility work against him, as does the fact he wasn't a sure-thing member of Miami's rotation by season's end.
Spencer Jones
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Status: Restricted
2025-26 Salary: $625,967 (converted from a two-way contract)
2025-26 Stats: 5.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.8 steals, 0.5 blocks
Spencer Jones' defensive grit and versatility are enough to warrant inclusion on their own.
Bigger wings, pure forwards, motion shooters, advantage-creation guards—you name the archetype, he faced it. The Denver Nuggets predominantly had him match up with Julius Randle, Naz Reid or Rudy Gobert in the playoffs. And it wasn't just so he could roam off them.
Providing consistent offense is Jones' Achilles heel, but he put some of the concern to rest during his sophomore campaign. While his jumper is awkward-looking AF, he's more confident firing away from deep. Drilling 39.6 percent of his triples is a good harbinger, though he needs to bump up the 3.7 attempts per 36 minutes.
There might be more meat on the bone, too. Jones is a pretty intuitive floor navigator in the half-court and has the build to set screens and work out from the middle of the floor. He shot 5-of-9 on floaters last year.
Denver can match an offer for Jones in the mini mid-level range and has the ability to go higher. But if the rumors about its C-Suite looking to cut costs are true, the 25-year-old is in prime up-for-grabs position.
Quinten Post
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Status: Restricted
2025-26 Salary: $2 million
2025-26 Stats: 7.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.5 blocks
Stretch seven-footers tend to have meaningful impacts on offense even when their threes aren't falling. Quinten Post was no exception during his sophomore campaign with the Golden State Warriors.
Although his long-range clip ducked beneath 34 percent, defenses often treated him as a viable spacing threat. That opened up the floor for everyone around him and is a huge reason why the Dubs shot a team-high 4.3 percentage points better at the rim with him on the court.
The 26-year-old's shooting slump also isn't as sinister as it might appear. Most of the drop-off came from the corners. He still banged in 36 percent of his above-the-break triples. He also improved his efficiency on self-created touches inside the arc, as well as his cutting and roll-man possessions.
Defensive concessions must be made whenever Post is in the game. He doesn't have the footspeed or raw physicality to deliver meaningful resistance on the perimeter or on the move. But he does have a knack for rotating to the right spots around the basket.
Opponents shot 58.4 percent at the hoop when challenged by Post. That mark put him squarely between Neemias Queta (57.8 percent) and Jabari Smith Jr. (59 percent), neither of whom would be considered a rim-protecting liability.
Taurean Prince
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Status: Player option ($3.8 million)
2025-26 Salary: $3.3 million
2025-26 Stats: 9.2 points, 3.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 0.6 steals
A strained neck cost Taurean Prince most of last season. By the time he returned, the Milwaukee Bucks were headed nowhere, but he looked like he was going places.
With the caveat that March-and-beyond basketball isn't necessarily airtight proof of anything, Prince averaged 10.6 points and 2.1 assists while connecting on 43.8 percent of his 6.2 three-point attempts over his final 18 games.
As a career 38.7 percent marksman from deep, the accuracy isn't all that staggering. The volume is a different story. Prince jacked up over nine triples per 36 minutes during his closing kick. That would easily be the most of his career.
Prince also showed a little more swagger with his swing passes, as well as his right hand drives coming around screens. And while no one should mistake him for a caps-lock STOPPER, his 6'6" frame can be moved around the positional spectrum on defense.
After recently turning 32, with the Bucks still headed nowhere, Prince feels like a lock to decline his player option and leave Milwaukee. Barring an inflated one-year offer out of left-field, he should fall squarely into the mini-MLE bucket—a price point his most recent shooting exploits outperformed.
Dan Favale is a National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.
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